“We learned today that four people in our state likely have the Zika virus as a result of a mosquito bite”, Governor Scott said.
Advertisement
Officials believe someone contracted the mosquito-borne virus while out of the country, and was then bitten by a mosquito that bit four others in Florida, spreading the virus.
The current outbreak was first detected in Brazil past year and has since spread rapidly through the Americas.
“These [U.S.] cases are not unexpected”. “We know local transmission is likely to happen in Texas at some point, and we’ve been doing everything possible to delay and prevent it”.
The health body has said the risk in the state on the south-east coast of the United States is moderate, while many countries in South America, including Olympic host Brazil, is high.
“What we’re facing right now with this latest unfortunate milestone is a public health emergency”, said Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal.
Professor Paul Cosford, Medical Director at Public Health England, said: “We expect to see small numbers of Zika virus infections in travellers returning to the United Kingdom, but the risk to the wider population is very low”. Researchers are working on a more complex test to help detect the virus even when symptoms aren’t apparent.
“Puerto Rico is in the midst of a Zika epidemic”.
Zika virus has been reported in Africa and parts of Asia since the 1950s, and in the southwestern Pacific Ocean since 2007. But scientists recently confirmed that infection during pregnancy can lead to severe brain-related birth defects.
“Florida is far from us, fortunately we do not have those mosquito species that could transmit the Zika virus here in B.C”. Officials concluded that the virus in that case had been transmitted sexually.
Fifty three people have been treated for the Zika virus, which can be predominantly transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito.
A zone of about one square mile in Miami-Dade County is considered at risk of active transmission.
State officials have responded rapidly with mosquito control measures and a community-wide search for additional Zika cases. “They’re spraying by both truck and backpack, both for adult mosquitoes and larval mosquitoes”. None of the four people infected in Florida are showing symptoms anymore, officials said.
“If you have recently returned from an area where Zika virus transmissions are now reported and have a fever or flu-like illness, seek medical attention without delay”. However, the CDC is not issuing such advice. Finding a live mosquito carrying Zika is akin to “finding a needle in a haystack”, Frieden said during the media briefing. Taking blood donations have been stopped and are tested first for the virus, according to the Food and Drug Administration in all the blood centers of Miami-Dade, Broward and near by areas.
“If you’re travelling to any of these places you should follow the advice of the National Travel Health Network and Centre and discuss your travel plans with your healthcare provider, particularly if you’re pregnant or planning to become pregnant”. (Mosquitos only need the amount of water in a bottle cap to breed.)2.
It comes after health officials in the USA discovered four cases of the virus, which it is feared were contracted from mosquitoes inside America and are not linked to foreign travel.
The virus generally spreads through from infected mosquitoes, and can also be through sex. Bergen And Passaic counties have the most cases with 14 apiece. These infections are thought to have occurred because the patients’ partners had traveled to countries where Zika is circulating, the CDC said. Zika can also cause birth defects.
Zika, which often comes with no symptoms, is very unsafe for pregnant women. President Barack Obama has asked Congress to allocate $1.9 billion to combat the Zika threat, but federal lawmakers have yet to agree on a spending package.
Advertisement
“Zika is now here”, Dr. Thomas Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a press briefing.
